[log] i'm the stranger's lonely glance, i'm the hero's only chance
After Martel leaves again, Morray stays in his office for a good long while - a few clerks from Lenda come and go in the intervening hours, but he doesn't emerge himself until well after dinner, seeking out Teobhan with no particular agenda in mind yet but finding her. He supposes, perhaps, they should discuss some of what Martel had to say to him ( Read more... )
Teobhan, coincidentally, is looking for Morray as well. When she sees him, she pauses in the hallway for a second, as if considering her method of approach, and eventually she just walks over and kisses him hello.
If her life is ruined by the end of the month, she might as well enjoy what time she gets to be free.
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"--but--"
She's actually really upset by this, and feels like expressing as much is going to somehow be...unfair to Morray (she doesn't want him to think he has to worry about her husband having a hold on her, it's not like that, except it is), but she can't help herself.
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It's not as though he couldn't keep talking - he and Martel discuss rather more than most people realize they do - but it seems somehow unhelpful. The Duke, for all of his many faults, is Teobhan's husband and Morray (for all of his) respects that.
If not the man himself.
So he touches his hand lightly to her back and doesn't say anything else.
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"He'll be so disappointed in me," she says, finally, quietly, "I never managed to give him an heir."
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Morray kisses her shoulder briefly and considers what to say to that that isn't horrifically tactless.
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She slides closer to him, not-quite on his lap (she still thinks herself too tall), but near it. "So Maldis is going to be dead soon, and I'm going to be a widow. What does that mean for us?"
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After a brief pause, he tells her truthfully, "I don't know." On a related note, he evidently doesn't think much of her height, because once she's close enough he simply tugs her the rest of the way himself.
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She can't help but notice this, and smiles, rueful, despite herself. "I thought I told you I was too tall for this."
She suspects he'll dismiss this notion, but it's strangely comforting to hear him do as much.
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"Don't be foolish, I'm much taller than you are." Morray rests his cheek against her shoulder, and stays there.
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"You are." Her smile is more audible than visible, given the angling.
"Do you think the Lord General disapproves of us now?"
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"...not as such," he says, a little more cautiously than he made his last remark.
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"No?" That sounds a little disconcerting. "What is it, then?"
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There is no way to save this conversation that isn't desperately awkward, Morray reflects. "I don't know quite how to put it."
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"Be as blunt as you like," she suggests, "At this point I think I'm ready to hear anything."
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Well, then, she did ask. "He doesn't approve of infidelity and he's mentioned before that I should mind my step as long as you're married. He called my timing 'close enough' and that was all was said on the subject. If he objected, we'd be having a very different conversation." And Morray might be missing teeth right now.
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Enjoy what she takes from that, Morray:
"So he thought we'd end up--eventually--"
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